[2014] Mayor’s Speech

From Berlin to Seoul, Unification Drives on Two Wheels

11/16/2014SMG443

Entry into Seoul, One Korea, New Eurasia Bicycle Peace Expedition

Date November 16th, 2014 | Venue Lawn Square, National Assembly

Everyone in the One Korea, New Eurasia Bicycle Peace Expedition, who pedaled your way up for unification and peace of the Korean peninsula and the opening of the era of a new Eurasia, as well as the ten thousand citizens who stayed with us from Imjingak, Paju, it is a great pleasure to be with you here today. I am the mayor of Seoul, Park Won Soon.

My pleasure is doubled especially to see the eight participants of the expedition in Seoul again after meeting you at the opening ceremony at the Brandenburg gate in Berlin in August. I am really thrilled that you have completed the entire course of 15,000 km, a voyage through 10 countries that took nearly 100 days, without any stragglers or injuries. I would like to extend my sincere welcome and congratulations to you.

The expedition is not only about completing the course. It is about us dreaming of unification and peace of the Korean peninsula as well as the era of a new Eurasia, which unification will bring us, and seeing these possibilities through your expedition.

The hearts and beads of sweat of the participants, who finished the rough course of 15,000 km, eight times the distance between Seoul and Busan, by stepping on pedals, will leave big marks in the history of unification of the Korean peninsula.

The path leading to peace and unification will be long and rough, just like your trip. However, just as the Berlin Wall did not collapse overnight, if we all long for unification and prepare for it step-by-step, the day will come to leave the tragic division of 70 years behind. In addition, Europe, which feels distant now, will be connected by railways and roads to open a new era of the Silk Road, with blooming economy, trade, culture, and art between Asia and Europe.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will make every effort as well. We will contribute by actively implementing the substantive and concrete exchanges and cooperation between the private sector and local governments required to enhance the relationship between South and North Korea. I expect that activities in the private sector, such as the One Korea, New Eurasia Bicycle Peace Expedition and cultural exchange cooperation between cities such as the Gyeongpyeong Soccer Games and Performances with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, which Seoul is planning, will be spread to other areas of the private sector and other local governments, leading to peace in the Korean peninsula.

I would like to thank the participants in the expedition for reviving the grounds of unification, and everyone concerned for your generous support in the expedition. Thank you very much.